Facts Matter: Disaster relief money not diverted to help migrants
False information, sadly, tends to follow natural disasters. Some of the fake news following Hurricane Helene actually came from former President Donald Trump.
“Well, for one thing, $1 billion was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants. And FEMA is now busted,” Trump said during an Oct. 4 stop in Augusta, Georgia, to survey the storm’s damage. “FEMA has not done the job, meaning the federal government, Kamala and Joe, have not done the job obviously.”
The FEMA claim is false, according to PolitiFact. Trump used the false statement to attack Kamala Harris, his opponent in the presidential race. He also shared a similar claim during stops in Michigan and North Carolina.
Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, programs for migrants don’t take money designated for disasters. The Disaster Relief Fund and the group’s programs for migrants are separately funded by Congress, not the president.
FEMA addressed the claim on its rumor response website.
“No money is being diverted from disaster response needs,” the agency said in an Oct. 3 post. “FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts.”
FEMA is not out of money, PolitiFact said. That information came from a statement made by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. After an Oct. 2 trip to check out storm damage in South Carolina, Mayorkas said, “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have … FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the (hurricane) season.”
Although FEMA will face a deficit this year, Congress has approved extra money for the relief fund every year since 2017. And $20 million was added to the Disaster Relief Fund in the latest stopgap bill to fund the government through Dec. 20.
Photo of Trump wading through water is fake
Former President Donald Trump traveled to areas affected by Hurricane Helene and spoke to residents, but not all the reports of his visit are accurate.
“I don't think FB wants this picture on FB. They have been deleting it,” reads the text of a Sept. 30 Facebook post that includes a photo of Trump and another man, dressed in orange life vests, wading through floodwater, identified in the comments as happening in Valdosta, Georgia.
But there is no evidence this actually happened, according to USA Today. The photo was created using artificial intelligence, or AI.
University of Notre Dame engineering professor Walter Scheirer told USA TODAY the photo is “the product of a generative AI algorithm.”
“One key giveaway is that the clothing of the two men appears to be dry,” Scheirer said. “If they were wading through water, they'd be soaked — an effect that can be seen in the numerous real photos from the hurricane.”
A comment on the post offered an explanation as to why Facebook would delete the post.
“Probably taken down because it's AI generated, every media outlet in the country would cover this if it actually happened,” the commenter wrote.
Vikings didn’t denounce Walz
A recent social media post appears to show a National Football League team issuing a political position.
“The Minnesota Vikings Have Denounced Tim Walz: ‘We Don’t Support His Values,’” reads a headline shown in a post that includes photos of Vikings players and Minnesota Gov. Walz.
But there is no evidence this is real, according to Reuters. There is no similar comment on the team’s website or social media accounts, and there are no other reports of the Vikings issuing this type of statement.
The headline matches a headline that appeared on an article by the Dunning-Kruger Times, published by a subsidiary of the satirical website America’s Last Line of Defense.
Aniston video is deep fake
A recent video making the rounds on social media shows actress Jennifer Aniston talking about her fitness and fat-burning routine while speaking with actress Nicole Kidman.
In the clip, Aniston, 55, is seen talking about keeping her “bikini body” in her 50s.
But this conversation didn’t actually take place, according to US WEEKLY. This video is a deep fake scam, created with new audio dubbed over a video of an event that did happen.
The video was made to sell collagen supplements, with the fake Aniston explaining “why my body doesn’t hold onto fat.”
In the original video, used to create the deep fake, Aniston is talking about acting with Kidman, Naomi Watts and Sofia Vergara during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.